New App Acts as Personal Trainer for Your Brain

When you think about a personal trainer, you probably envision sweating it out in a gym under watchful eyes. That’s good for your body, but your brain could probably use a good workout, too. That’s where the personal fitness trainer for the brain comes in.

This particular personal fitness trainer comes in the form of an app for iPads and iPhones. A product of Vivity Labs, the Fit Brains Trainer app is capable of putting your brain through a series of exercises designed to keep it sharp. The game is also available in a web-based version.

Just weeks after hitting the market, the Fit Brains Trainer app was one of the most popular education items in Apple app stores in the U.S. and Canada, averaging more than 10,000 downloads a day.

“This works on all the key muscle groups in the brain. It focuses on memory, logic, speed, visual and concentration – all the key areas of the brain,” said Michael Cole, co-founder and chief executive of the Vancouver based company.

In the World Alzheimer Report, Alzheimer’s Disease International estimated that, globally, there were 35.6 million people living with dementia in 2010, and those figures are expected to increase to 65.7 million by 2030 and 115.4 million by 2050. Keeping our brains active has become a top priority for the world’s aging population.

That doesn’t mean younger people can’t benefit from the app. In fact, users of the app span every age group. Young adults enjoy gauging their performance as they work through the challenges and advance level by level. If you have a competitive nature, or you’re just a bit curious, the app allows you to compare yourself to others.

According to Cole, people who use Fit Brains average 3.7 sessions a week, about five times more than they spend with other educational apps. You can use the app from anywhere, anytime, and it only takes about ten minutes a day to keep your brain stimulated.

The app is free and comes with an initial free subscription for five brain-training sessions. After that, you can opt out, but continue to play with the three games included with the free download. You can upgrade to a paid subscription for only $9.99 a year, or in six-month or three-month increments.

Currently, there are ten games, each including a series of levels through which you can progress. Designed to adjust to your individual playing style, the app breaks your score out into sections so you can identify your strengths and weaknesses.